Smart Autumn Planting Can Nurture Nature

As autumn arrives and gardens begin their seasonal transformation, Squire’s Garden Centres is encouraging gardeners to garden thoughtfully with weather plant choices that are resilient, wildlife-friendly and ready for the changing seasons ahead. With our climate continuing to shift, selecting plants that support biodiversity and thrive in evolving conditions can make a meaningful difference – not just for your garden, but for nature too.

With warm soil, cooler air and reliable rainfall, autumn offers ideal conditions for planting; it’s the perfect time to establish bulbs and perennials, setting the stage for healthy growth for the year. Autumn is the optimum window to refresh beds and borders with plants that work harder for wildlife too.

Shrubs such as Callicarpa, Pyracantha and Cotoneaster are wonderful multi-taskers, producing vibrant berries that add seasonal colour while offering a vital food source for birds. Similarly, spiky Berberis brings structure and interest while supporting garden birds with its berries.

For gardeners looking to combine resilience with seasonal flowers, hardy perennials like Helleborus (Winter Rose) are superb additions. Sedum’s late blooms provide valuable nectar for bees and butterflies, while Hellebores flower through the colder months, supporting insects that are not hibernating or have come out of hibernation at a time when food is scarce.

Flowering plants such as Echinacea and Salvia add rich, lasting colour and are pollinator magnets, drawing bees and butterflies well into autumn. Asters (Michaelmas Daisies) continue the display with cheerful late blooms. Hebe and Heathers bring structure, colour and nectar, with heathers in particular offering reliable blooms into winter.

When planning for the future, trees and climbers also have a role to play. A Crab Apple tree is a seasonal star, providing spring blossom for early pollinators and autumn fruit for birds, while Silver Birch is a biodiversity powerhouse, supporting hundreds of insect species and the predators they attract. Even humble Ivy (Hedera helix) is a hero plant, supplying vital late-season nectar and evergreen structure.

Together, these plants form the backbone of a garden that not only looks beautiful but actively supports wildlife, improves biodiversity and copes with the realities of a changing climate. Whether in beds, borders, pots or containers, they’ll add colour, texture and life – while helping nature thrive.

Sarah Squire, Chairman – Squire’s Garden Centres, comments: “As gardeners, we have an incredible opportunity to support the natural world from our own back gardens. By choosing plants that are resilient, pollinator-friendly and beneficial to wildlife, we can create spaces that are not only beautiful but that give something back to nature. Autumn is a wonderful season for planting – it’s the perfect time to think ahead, invest in plants that will flourish for years to come as well as helping our gardens play their part in supporting biodiversity.”